Just over a year to the day from my last post (New Year's Resolution- DO YOUR BLOG REGULARLY!!) I am at the end of my first term back at university as a 'mature' student. I left the vets in Ramsgate at the end of February and worked as a locum nurse to earn money to help support myself through uni. I was originally supposed to have my first locum position in Richmond, West London and share a house with other nurses overlooking Richmond Park. I was looking foward to wandering through the park, watching the deer. A few days before I was due to move out of Ramsgate I got a call that meant I would still be working for the same vets but in Forest Gate, East London. I was 'advised' not to take my car with me. I felt daunted and apprehensive. One of the biggest fears as a locum nurse is not getting along with the permenant staff. Not a problem in Forest Gate. The nurse there, Lucy and I gelled from day 1 and have such a similar sense of humour we are probably exceedingly bad for each other!! That branch was unfortunately closed in the middle of July and I was sad to leave (Lucy and I were in tears) not only the practice but I had also fallen in love with London.
I then went to a practice in Cambridgeshire. This was much busier and the clients seemed much harder to please than other practices I have worked at. I had a 2 week break at the end and then it was time to officially become a student.
I'm back at uni for 2 main reasons: I have always wanted to be involved in forensics (I'm doing a BSc in Forensic Science) but due to ill health when at school I was advised against it. The second reason is that I was bored with being a veterinary nurse.
This feeling I have is actually quite complicated. There are some aspects of nursing that I love and miss- client interaction, lab work (although I shall be doing plenty of that soon) and general nursing of inpatients such as getting an anorexic animal to eat. As with any job there are the bits you dislike- theatre work and clients who know better than you despite all the work you have done to pass your exams, and people who think it is your duty to treat their animal without them paying you because you're animal lovers. I also felt that I had peaked. I had qualified and was assisting another fabulous student nurse as a clinical coach but didn't have the intellectual challenge anymore. There were courses I could have done to gain an extra qualification but none of them, bar one appealed to me and that one course cost over £3000.
I'm just finishing the first semester of my foundation year and so far it's going well. Biology, perhaps unsurprisingly has been my most successful subject so far although I am still waiting for marks for some of my modules. Chemistry I have found a challenge but very interesting and elements of it are gradually falling into place. Maths, as per usual has been my biggest downfall but I should hopefully scrape by and I don't have it anymore after this first semester. The new year will bring lots of biology and chemistry, and then, next September, the Forensic part will start. And that is when the real fun will begin!
